BIS-CD-575STEREO EIDIDI Totalplayingtirne: 73'47 SIBELIUS, Johan (Jean) Julius Christian (186s-1957) E Finlandia, Op.26 @reitkopfl 8'26 Andantesostenuto - Allegromoderato - Allegro RAUTAVAARA, Einojuhani (b.1e2B) Cantus arcticus, Op.6l 6*4 T7'OB (Concerto for Birds and Orchestra) f The Bog 6'3+ I Melancholy 3',59 @ Swansmigrating 6',22 RAITIO, Viiinii (18e1-1e45) E Joutsenet (The Swans) (suomensiiuttaite;Wain L;itto) 7',43 Andantetranquillo ENGLUND, Einar (b.1e16) * Valkoinen peura (The White Reindeer), Swite 1w,; 13'30 E Alkusoitto (Prelude). Allegromoderato 1',36 E Tunturi (The Fell). Adagio 4',13 @ Poroajot (The Reindeer Race). Allegromolto r'2+ E Surumarssi (Funeral March). Graue 3',13 E Finaali (Finale). Allegrogiocoso 2',45 SIBELIUS, Johan (Jean) Julius Christian (186s-1e57) * Suite for Violin and String Orehestra 1uq 6'52 @ I. Country-scenery,Op.1 17 No.7. Allegretto 1'59 E IL Eveningin spring,Op.117 No.2. Andantino 2'51 @ IIII.In thesummer, Op.117 No.3. Viuace 1'50 Dong-Suk Kang, violin KROHN, Felix (1896-1963),arr. FUNTEK, Leo (1885-1965) *Odalisqwe. B Lentorubatomanontroppo (M/s) 6'01 (Ilkka Piilli, cello) KLAMI, IJuno (1900-1961) E * Pyiiriiilije (The Cyclist), Rondo for Orchestra 6*; 6'43 Graue* Allegromolto uiuace arr. KAJANUS, Robert (1856-1933) * * E Porilaisten marssi (March of the People of Pori) 2'42 Presidential March 1ut's Musical life in Finland has travelled for a whole century along the path marked out byJean Sibelius. The great composer's first major orchestral work Kullerao was first performed in 1892, and with it Finland entered the history of music. Musical life in the city of Lahti has already centred around'Sibelius Street'- Sibeliuksenkatu - for almost four decades. The Lahti Concert Hall, the bold creation of the internationally renowned Finnish architects Heikki and Kaija Siren, was built on the corner of Hevosmiehenkatu ('Horseman Street') and Tapionkatu ('Tapio Street'; Tapio is god of the forest in Finnish mythology) in 1954. The municipal authorities did not think it suitable for the Concert Hall to be upp.ou-h.d alongjust any street, however, and they renamed the streets' granting the Concert Hall, the Lahti Symphony Orchestra and the Conservatory an address to be proud of: Sibeliuksenkatu B ('8, Sibelius Street'), Lahti, Finland' With the present CD, the Lahti Symphony Orchestra wishes to celebrate 75 years of Finnish independence and simultaneously to honour its most remarkable musical creator, the great composerJean Sibelius. His life's work has lit the way for Finnish music throughout the world and has encouraged younger composers' whose compositions from the decades of Finnish independence are presented on this disc alongside the music of Sibelius. The orchesira would also like to thank the City of Lahti for valiant support which has enabled the orchestra to develop into an internationally renowned ensemble. Without the Concert Hall the Lahti Symphony Orchestra would not exist in its present form, and we should like to dedicate this performance of Felix Krohn's Odalisqueto the composer and to the people who built the Concert Hall; their forethought has played an important part in the rise of Lahti into one of Finland's and Scandinavia's most outstanding musical centres. arrived in Helsinki from the JohanJulius Christian (Jean) Sibelius (1865-1957) imall io*n of HAmeenlinna in 1885. He commenced law studies at Helsinki University and also registered at the Music Institute, where he continued the studies of violin and piano playing and of musical theory which he had begun rn HAmeenlinna. By a quirk of history, the capital had only prepared itself to receive the future great ma; a couple of years earlier: in 1BB2 Martin Wegelius had founded a conservatoire, the Helsinki Music Institute (nowadays the Sibelius Academy) and the conductor Robert Kajanus had established the symphony orchestra under the auspices of the Helsinki Orchestral Society (from 1895 called the Philharmonic Society Orchestra, nowadays the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra). A year later, in 1883, PekkaJuhani (P.J.) Hannikainen established the first Finnish-language choir, the male-voice Helsinki University Chorus (Ylioppilaskunnan Laulajat, or YL). All three of these institutions were soon to play a significant r6le in the composer's life. It was scarcely five decades ago that Helsinki University had appointed as its professor of music the 26-year-old German musician Fredrik Pacius, whose life work was the organization of musical life in the capital city of Finland, a country which since 1809 had been an autonomous Grand Duchy responsible to the Tsar of Russia. With Kulleruo (BIS-CD-313) for soloists, chorus and orchestra Sibelius 'entered Jean the service of the Finnish cause', as his father-in-law General Alexander Jirnefelt said, and Sibelius's SongoJ the Athenians (1899; BIS-CD-314) became a Finnish freedom song. It was Finlandia, however, which became emblematic of everything Finnish and, before long, a symbol of a free Finland. In early 1899 the Russian Tsar Nicholas II published the'February Manifesto,, reducing the degree of Finnish self-government, with the aim of its rapid cessation. Half a million Finns signed a letter of protest, which the Tsar did not deign to accept. Wirhin a year more than twenty newspapers were banned. In November 'Press the Pension celebrations' were arranged, with the thinly veiled intention of demonstrating support for free speech and a free press. At an evening gala held at Helsinki's Swedish rheatre the main event was a series of tableaux based on the history of the Finnish people. Sibelius wrote the music for the performance . The set of tableaux was received with ardent enthusiasm, and amidst the general clamour the music was scarcely noticed. At the Paris World Exhibition in 1900 Finland was represented by a raree contingent of artists. led by the Philharmonic Society orchestia under the directio'n of Robert Kajanus and byJean Sibelius. several months before their departure for 'Mr. France an anonymous admirer, X', had insisted that Sibelius should write an overture for the orchestra, to be played at its first Paris concert and to be called Finlandia. For this purpose Sibelius reworked the sixth movement from the set of historical tableaux, which was christened Finlandia - even though, from fear ofthe Russians, it was deemed necessaryto perform it under the title La Patrie.'Mr.X' proved to be the mysterious Baron Axel Carpelan, who was to become the close friend and champion of the composer. Sibelius himself did not attach undue importance to Finlandia, because in his opinion its successharmed his reputation as a symphonist. Nothing, however, was able to prevent its rapid spread all over the world, as a symbol for the Finnish cause and, soon afterwards, of the independent Republic of Finland. The piece has been the subject of hundreds of arrangements (above all in the United States), and it is unquestionably among the best-known of all classical works of music. Especially during the difficult war years (1939-40 and 1941-44) Finlandia, which was constantly being played on Finnish radio, helped the entire nation in its struggle, and it has retained a place in the heart of every Finn' Finiandia is heard as an orchestral work or in the choral version of its hymn section (to words by V.A' Koskenniemi) at all major festive occasions, and by tradition it is also the concludine work in the Lahti Svmphony Orchestra's annual concert celebratlng Finland's lndependence Day on 6til Deiember. The work Cantus arcticus, a'concerto for birds and orchestra' by the Proi'essor ol' Composition at the Sibelius Academy, characterful symphonist, opera composer and mystic Einojuhani Rautavaara (b.1928) is a classicof modern Finnish mrrsi.:. It was written for the academic festivities \n 1972 at Oulu University (the most northerly university in Finland), and it is dedicated to Finland's then president, urho Kekkonen. Ever since Sibelius, composers have produced an abundance of pieces,mainly cantalas.for universityoccasions. but Rautavaara wanted to break with the academic traditions by means of this piece. He himself set off with a tape recorder to roam around the marshlands ofthe north, and it was from the birds oi the Arctic that he selected the soloists for his concerto. With the orchestra he - depicted the wavering twilight atmosphere of the north barren, touching' on the boundary between the real and the imaginary - in which the song of the birds amid the forest murmurs forms a mysterious counterpoint, between familiar cranes and swans and other unidentifiable sounds, which the orchestral brass once again imitate with their own crane-like cries. Rautavaara wrote in the performance notes 'Think at the beginning of the work: of autumn and of Tchaikovsky'. For this recording the composer's revised tape recording has been used. In 1916 Robert Kajanus conducted the first concert of music by Viiinii Raitio (1891-1945), a student in his mid-twenties at the Helsinki Music Institute (Sibelius Academy), and the great success of the event promised a great future. Studies in Moscow and Berlin added an international colour to the Finnish tone of his music, and the tone poem Joutsenet ('The Swans'), the first performance of which Kajanus conducted in 1921, came as the herald of a daring new style. The work's motto is a sensitive poem by Otto Manninen, which Raitio sets in brilliant colours. Viino Raitio served as a teacher at the Viipuri Music College from 1926 until 1932, after which he returned to Helsinki to work as a freelance composer. His symphonic poems came to assume a central r6le in his output. and in his later years he wrote several operas. Ui merta ne unten, Swimming over the sea of dreams piin utuista rantaa.